


I Will Protect You (From All Around You)

by foreverfelicityqueen (stydiasredstring)



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: 6.5 fic, Angst, Canon Divergent, F/M, Family Feels, Gen, Season 7 Spoilers, family fic, season 7 speculation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-22
Updated: 2018-10-11
Packaged: 2019-06-14 07:29:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 21,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15383730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stydiasredstring/pseuds/foreverfelicityqueen
Summary: Post S6- With Oliver in prison, Felicity's taken parenting William on alone.  And with vigilantes being traced by the SCPD, the team is on edge and stakes are higher than ever.  But when Carrie Cutter comes back to town with a surprising proposition, will Felicity agree to work with Cupid for the chance to free Oliver?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Something happens to William, and Felicity goes full MamaBear Mode on that. Little angsty maybe?!

“What do you mean you don’t know where he is?!”

Felicity turned on Roy, the full force of her words vibrating through the small apartment. This wasn’t happening. Not now, not again. 

“Felicity, calm down, we’re gonna find him.”

“I’m not gonna calm down, John. What if this was JJ, huh? Would you tell Lyla to calm down? No, you’d be tearing through hell to get your son back, and that’s exactly what I intend to do.”

None of them said anything. They didn’t dare look her in the eye either. “Curtis, where is he?”

“I’m checking his tracker but…”

“But what?”

He shifted his gaze towards Digg.

“No, stop looking at him, and tell me what’s going on? Did Diaz take my son?” She couldn’t stop the thunder rolling in her chest. She had promised Oliver she would take care of him, but more importantly she promised William. She swore she’d protect him no matter what. And she failed.

“It wasn’t Diaz Felicity,” Roy spoke up, moving around the group. “I’m so sorry. I caught the slightest glimpse before I got knocked out. But I know what I saw, and Curtis has been tracking her for the last hour.”

“Her? Not Black Siren? Laurel did not take–”

“It was Carrie Cutter,” John interrupted as he met her gaze. “She hit Roy with a tranquilizer and took William.” 

“That’s not… Why would she do that?”

“We don’t know,” he said, placing a hand on her shoulder. “But we’re gonna find him and bring him home. I promise you that.”

“Don’t,” she whispered, shaking her head. “Oliver promised that he’d be there for us. He promised William he would never leave, and he still went away. So don’t you dare stand there and promise me things. I want my son home. And I will do it myself if I have to.”

“Felicity–”

“No, John. I am the only family that boy has, and I will be damned if he can’t trust me to be there for him,” she turned on Curtis again. “Move.”

“I’m in the middle of a–”

“I said move!”

“Okay,” he got up and stepped away for the computers. “Felicity, we want to help.”

“You want to help? Then be ready to suit up and go after her when I get a lock on their location.”

“But the vigilante task force?”

She shot him a glare. “I don’t care about the task force. I care about William. And if you do too, you’ll stop complaining and give me my space to work.”

She saw John gesture out of the corner of her eye. It must have been enough because both Curtis and Roy had gone by the time he spoke again.

“You want to talk about it?”

“No, I want to find William.”

“Felicity,” he paused then shook his head. “We’re gonna get him back.”

“What if we don’t, what if,” even though the nightmares played fast in her mind she didn’t dare speak them aloud. “I can’t lose him, Digg. I can’t lose anymore people I love.”

“I know that,” he placed his hand on hers and squeezed. “You’re not gonna lose him. We may butt heads here, but the team is a family. And you and William are the epicenter of that. We’re gonna find him.”

“What would Carrie Cutter want with him?”

“Find her, and I’ll make sure we ask, after we get him safe.”

“Thanks John.”

She cleared her throat, and turned back to the computer. But she could still feel his gaze of her. “What?”

“When we find him, you should go see Oliver.”

“No.”

“Felicity, you two need to talk to each other.”

“I appreciate where this is coming from, but I can’t think about Oliver right now,” she was falling into the code in front of her and she needed to focus. “If I miss one thing here, I might never see Will again. And I refuse to lose him because I got distracted.”

“Okay, I understand.”

The computer pinged and she sighed. “I have a location, grab Roy and I’ll meet you at the van.”

“Wait, you’re not staying here?”

“This psycho kidnapped my kid, the hell I’m staying here.”

“Alright. Let me grab my gear.”

“You have five minutes.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apparently this is a series now. I thought it was gonna be a twoshot, but I was wrong. And not it has plot and a destination. And we will see how that goes. I hope you're enjoying this. I'm enjoying it.

She counted the mile markers as they road down the streets of the Glades. The more time that passed, the worse the fears rose in her. What could Cupid possibly want with William? And why, why had she let him out of her sight earlier? She should have insisted he come to the loft after school. Like every other day. But he had asked if Roy could pick him up, and Will barely asked her for anything. She shouldn’t have said yes.

“Stop beating yourself up,” John said, shooting her a glance across the seat.

“I should have been there.”

“Felicity, no offense but what could you have done?”

“I would have stopped her.” She didn’t know how, but she believed every word.

“You sound just like him,” John muttered, and when she looked over he continued. “You and Oliver, you’d do anything for the people you love.”

“Except I’m here, and he’s not.”

“That’s not really fair.”

“Neither is leaving your wife and son alone,” she bit back. “He left us John. And I get why he did it. I know him better than anyone in this world. So I know why he made the choice he did. But he still made it. And he didn’t think about how it would leave me or William without him. Because I know if he had thought about that for longer than a moment, he wouldn’t have chosen this.”

“This is why you need to talk to him, Felicity. You can’t keep this anger in. You gotta talk about things.”

“With a piece of plexiglass between us? That’s not how I want to have this conversation,” she wiped at her eyes as she sat up straighter. “And it’s not what’s important right now. We have to get William back.”

“I’m gonna table this.”

“Thank you.”

“Until we have Will,” he continued. “But I’m not done Felicity. Not while I’m watching the two best people I know tear each other inside out instead of talking to one another.”

She pulled her tablet further in front of her, and watched as Will’s tracker stayed in the same square. She didn’t want to think about Oliver, she couldn’t. Not when Will was missing. Not when she didn’t know if she’d ever see him again. God she had to find him.

“We’re here,” he said.

As she let her eyes slip open again she saw that Roy had already popped the van door open, as he stood by her window.

“You’re not staying here are you?”

“What do you think?” she challenged as she hopped out of the cab.

“Look Felicity,” he paused, and she could see the hesitation in her stance. “I need to say it again, I’m so--”

“Stop.”

“But I didn’t mean for this to happen.”

“Roy,” she felt like her insides were crumbling every second Will wasn’t by her side. But she needed him to hear this. “This wasn’t your fault.”

“He was with me.”

“And a crazy person kidnapped him. That’s not on you,” she paused. “I need you to put this aside, because I can’t have you go in there and second guess yourself. Not right now. So are you with us?”

“Yeah,” he nodded. “I’m good.”

“Good,” she squeezed his shoulder. “Roy’s gonna take the second level with a bow. Rene and Curtis take the back entrance. Digg and I will go through the front.”

“What about D?” Rene said as he jumped from the second vehicle. “We should have called her.”

“We didn’t have time,” she replied. “We neutralize Carrie, and then we can call Dinah to bring her in. Deal?”

“Copy that,” he replied grabbing Curtis by the arm. “Come on Mr. T we got work to do.”

“No one makes a move until William is clear.”

“Felicity,” Digg said as he came to stand next to her. “You don’t have to go in there.”

“Yes I do,” she met his eyes. “He needs to see me first, and once I get him out of there, you three take Cutter down.”

“Yeah, no problem.”

As they made their way into the building, Felicity felt her heart pound against her chest. Almost as if the sound was amplified by the space. But she swallowed down the fear building in her and pushed forward. _I will find him._ She repeated it like a mantra in her head. But it wasn't just Will’s face came to mind.

She couldn’t help but think of Oliver sitting alone in his prison cell. What would he do if he got news that something had happened to Will. God she couldn’t imagine what that would do to him. What shred of strength he was holding on to, would break if something happened to their boy? She couldn’t let that happen. Not for either of them.

The warehouse opened from a narrow hall, to a larger space. And there in the center of the a group of crates, sat William.

The second her eyes landed on him, Felicity sprinted past Digg and right for her son. She didn’t look around the room, she didn’t calculate for booby-traps or hidden threats.

She could hear John’s footsteps behind her, but she didn’t slow as she reached William, pulling him up and into her arms.

“I’m okay,” he said as she crushed him with a hug. “Felicity’s I’m okay.”

“I’m not,” she let out as she pulled away just enough to check him over. “Where did she go?”

“Felicity listen--”

“We have to go, now,” she tapped her comm before she turned her attention to the team. “Cutter’s not out in the open, but be on the lookout. Digg and I are getting Will out of here.”

“No!” Will said and it drew her attention back to him. He was shaking his head, like he wanted to say more.

“What do you mean no? Will, this woman, she’s not stable and we have to go.”

He finally looked at her in a desperate pout. “She said she could help.”

John finally reached them. “Coast is clear. I don’t know what Cutter’s playing at, but I don’t like us still being here.”

“One second,” Felicity turned back to Will. “What do you mean she said she could help? Help what?”

“Help with Dad.”

“William--”

“I know how it sounds,” he cut Digg off with a huff. “You think I don’t know how it sounds? Some random person kidnaps me and tells me she can help get my dad out of jail. You don’t think I know it sounds crazy?”

“Will, she said that to get you to come with her.”

“No she didn't,” he insisted. “She told me she needed your help and this was the only way she could get your attention.”

“Yeah she got my attention,” Felicity retorted. “And I’m gonna spend every waking moment I have to make sure she regrets every action she took in the last 24 hours.”

“Felicity will you listen to me please? She wants to help us.”

“Will no--”

“Why won’t you just hear her out? What harm could that do?”

He pulled a phone from his pocket. Not his phone. Felicity knew every device Will owned. This was some cheap burner phone.

“Where did you get that?”

“She told me to give it to you,” he said as he held it out for her. “She said if you want to save Dad, you’ll call her and help her with what she needs. And then she’ll give you what we need to get him out.”

“So Cutter must have cleared out,” Curtis said as he and Rene made their way into the main area. “Whatever she’s got up her sleeve, it’s not here.”

“We’re leaving,” Felicity took the phone and pocketed. “Come on.”

Will shook his head. “You’re not even gonna try, are you?”

“Favors like this, always come with strings. And what she offered, isn’t something she can deliver on. Trust me on that,” she placed a hand on his chin so he would look at her. “Don’t you think if there was a way to get your dad out, I would have thought of it?”

“I don’t know,” he whispered as he pulled back. “You won’t even go see him.”

“That’s not fair.”

“Yeah, trust me, I know,” he moved past her when Roy joined them. “Can we leave now?”

John watched her closely, as she pulled her strength back. She couldn’t fall. She had to wait. Wait until Will was asleep, until she was alone. Just not in front of him. But she felt herself falling just the same.

“Rene, would you and Curtis take Will back to your place for me,” she said barely holding it in. “Digg, Roy, and I will follow you guys in a minute. I want to canvas the building. Make sure we didn’t miss anything.”

“Yeah,” Rene said, grabbing hold of Will’s shoulder. “Come on kid, Zoe should be back from practice by the time we get there.”

She waited until they left, waited until she was sure she heard the tires pull away, before she took a seat in the chair William had been sitting in when they arrived.

“Tell me it’s crazy,” she finally said as she looked up at her friends. “Tell me it’s insane to trust her, and that if I pick up that phone, I’m dooming Will to a life without me too. Because I need some rational thought here guys.”

They shared a look before Digg spoke. “We don’t know what Carrie wants.”

“Or how she plans to 'help',” Roy added.

“Yeah or that,” he said. “But we’ve gone through everything on our end. It couldn’t hurt to talk to her.”

“Digg, she’s a criminal.”

“So are we, technically. Carrie Cutter isn’t my favorite person Felicity,” he paused then shrugged. “But I think we should give it a shot.”

“What if she’s playing us?”

“Then we still take her down.”

“Roy?” she turned to him. “What do you think?”

“If it was reversed, and Oliver had to make this choice about you, he wouldn’t hesitate,” he replied. “Besides, I promised Thea I’d come home and protect our family. And that includes Oliver. If she can really help…”

She pulled the phone for her pocket, staring at the screen. “This could backfire.”

“We’ll be right next to you if it does.”

She sighed, thinking again of Oliver. Will had been right. She hadn’t gone to see Oliver yet. Not because she didn’t want to see him. But because she knew the second she did, everything would become permanent. She didn’t want that, she didn’t want to picture Oliver in that place. And maybe this was the way out of that.

She tapped the screen, seeing one number programmed in it. It was a gamble. She knew that this could go terribly wrong. But Digg and Roy were beside her. And she knew, with them at her sides, she could handle whatever came next.

Felicity hit the call button and waited for it to ring. For the first time in months, she let the dream of Oliver coming home seep into her mind. She just hoped she wouldn’t regret it.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys!
> 
> This took a while to write. If you don't follow me on tumblr (you can if you want I'm olicityfamily over there) or you just missed my massive emotional days last week. I had a brother in the hospital this week. A stubborn ass of a brother, who refused to stay and get treatment for his seizures (he also lives pretty far away so i couldn't just drive out there and talk some sense into him). So I had not been writing because I instead was crying about things. So that's why this is later than I wanted it to be.
> 
> I will add that, it's likely this story's updates will be sporadic. It doesn't mean I've abandoned it. It's one of my main projects right now (along with a top secret thing with my favorite co-author Cassie). But since I also have that going write now I'm juggling the two. But I love this story. I love where it's going. I love, love, love, writing this fierce, protective Felicity. It's so much fun. And I will continue to write this until we get where we need to go. 
> 
> I'm gonna stop rambling and let you guys read now. Enjoy!
> 
> Love,  
> Kayla

The call with Cupid had been short. She told Felicity she wanted to meet in person, even gave her a time and a place. There was just one stipulation. And she knew it was enough of one that she’d have to share with the team. 

There were gathered in Digg's living room, Will was back at home with Raisa and an ARGUS guard. She hated leaving him alone for so long, but until things were decided she wasn't going to tell him about this. Her hopes were already high enough without adding his to the mix.

“She wants to meet you alone?” Dinah’s eyes went wide as she looked between Digg and Roy. “And you two agreed with this?”

Felicity didn’t blame her. She knew how it sounded. She knew that stepping foot anywhere Carrie Cutter was, alone, was a recipe for disaster. But she also knew she had to see this through.

“I won’t be alone,” Felicity said, pulling their focus back to her. “You guys will be there, on the comms, and in close enough range to take her down if something happens.”

“Or, and maybe this might be the cop in me talking, we could go and arrest the fugitive who murdered a bunch of people a few years back.”

“Di--”

“You all are on board with this?”

“I don’t like it either,” she said with a sigh, everyone’s eyes on her. “But Carrie says she has something that we could use to get Oliver out of Slabside, legally. And I… I have to do something. I can’t keep sitting on the sidelines and letting things happen to my family. It’s time to do something. If you guys don’t want to be apart of this I understand. But please don’t try and stop me.”

The rest of them shot glances back and forth, but it was Rene who spoke first.

“We’re with you on this,” he stood and moved to stand between the two groups. “Oliver would do the same thing for any of us. And I’m not gonna let him rot for the same crap we’re all guilty of. No way. We had issues, but that’s not what’s important now. Whatever you need, I’m there.”

“Thank you.”

“Obviously, we’re not letting you go in alone,” Dinah added as she crossed her arms. “Or with just back up waiting in the wings. I’ll go in with you.”

“Her message said alone.”

“Yeah, well she’s gonna be disappointed,” Dinah replied. “Besides, if something goes down, I’d feel better knowing I was there to help.”

“Okay,” she felt a surge of confidence in standing there. This is how it should be. The team together, working towards a goal. Everything had been so messed up since Diaz, they had all felt the fractures of the split. But this is what they knew how to do, and they did it best together. “Good, let’s do this.”

\---

“Spartan do you have eyes on the west side entrance?” Felicity said as she felt at the comm in her ear. 

Her and Dinah walked up the steps of the old apartment building, and even though this was her idea, Felicity couldn’t help the nerves that filled her.

“Copy that,” Digg replied. “Wild Dog and Terrific?”

“Roof’s clear hoss,” Rene said in reply. “What about Arsenal, how’s the ground level kid?”

“Funny you calling me a kid, when I’ve been at this a hell of a lot longer than you,” Roy retorted.

“Still younger than me, hoss.”

“Boys, play nice,” Dinah chimed in with a smirk, then turned to her. “What unit number did she say?”

“312,” she said, reciting the address over once more in her head. She knew the risk they were taking, the danger that even associating with Carrie Cutter could pose. Agent Watson was still in Star City, and they had to be on their guard with her.

“We can still walk away,” DInah said, giving voice to her fears. “Just because Cutter said she had something that could help doesn’t mean we have to take the bait.”

She could listen to Dinah and the small voice in the back of her head that told her this would only end in more pain then she already felt. But Will’s face flashed in her mind. His plea that she listen, and do something to save Oliver. She had to see it through to the end, even if she ended up burned along the way.

“Let’s just get this over with.” 

Her eyes landed on the door just to the left of them, the number faded on its surface. But she could see it through all the layers of grime, and she felt the draw forward. 

She knocked against the surface, and the sound echoed in the abandoned hall. For the longest of moments nothing happened.

“Maybe she’s not here?”

“The heat signature I’m reading would would disagree with you,” Curtis said. “Maybe she wants you to just go in.”

“Yes because we go with the wants of a crazy person,” Dinah muttered back, then she shot Felicity an apologetic look. “After you?”

Felicity took hold of the door handle, she twisted and pushed until she was standing in a dingy apartment. The smell of mildew and mothballs, wafted to her nose, and she almost backed out. Until her eyes landed on a rocking chair by the window. Carrie sat there her eyes trained on something outside.

“I thought my message said to come alone,” she said, not turning to look at them.

“Well we’re not in the habit of leaving people unattended in your vicinity,” Dinah replied. “Considering how taken you are with arrows and kidnapping.”

“Oh, the bird has bite,” she shifted then, the edges of a smirk forming on her face. “That’s a nice addition to your little group.”

“We came here because you said you had something that could help us,” Felicity cut in, taking a step in front of Dinah. “Not to banter. So what is it?”

“That’s not how this works.” Carrie stood fast, but if she was going to make her way closer, she thought better of it when Dinah tensed. “I said I would help you, if you did something for me first.”

“How about I don’t arrest you for kidnapping a 12 year old kid?” 

“A cop and a vigilante,” Carrie tsked. “I know the oath you took, how much it must weigh on you. So tell me does that dual morality help you put away the bad guys or does it just blur the lines? Maybe you don’t even know which side you’re really on anymore?”

Dinah pulled on her arm. “Felicity, she’s got nothing. We’re wasting our time here.” Then lower, so only she could hear. “We should go.”

“Why did you take William?” Felicity pressed on, watching as Carrie moved again, her fingers tracing an old cradle that sat abandoned in the corner.

“The boy was supposed to tell you that one.”

“He said you wanted to get a hold of us. Why?”

“Because I knew you could help me,” she shrugged. “I need something that I can’t get on my own. Something that I know you can get for me.”

“What?” She could see something in Carrie’s eyes, something pained and sharp. Whatever she wanted, whatever reason she came to them, she was willing to do anything for it.

Carrie tilted her head towards them. “An ARGUS file.”

“Excuse me?” Dinah scoffed. “You enacted this elaborate plan for a your discharge paperwork?”

“I never said the file was mine,” she shot Dinah a glare, then her eyes shifted back to Felicity, softening slightly. “Get me that file, and I’ll tell you exactly what Ricardo Diaz’s next move is, and what you can do to stop it.”

Her words froze Felicity in place, even as Dinah tried to pull her back a step, she couldn’t move. “How do you know Diaz?”

“He’s been building himself up as this criminal mastermind for a while now,” she scoffed. “A joke if you ask me, and a few others. But we figured it was better to let him do his thing, then end up dead. He got close to a friend of mine, then he slit her throat.”

“So you want revenge?”

“Revenge, please? You know me better than that,” she leaned herself against the dusty wallpaper, her eyes back out the window. “She knew what she was getting into when she got close to him. He managed to twist this city against the beloved Oliver Queen. Anyone that demented isn’t someone you want to be close with. But I do want that file. And you want Diaz off the streets.”

“You said this could help Oliver,” Felicity wasn’t letting her forget the real reason she came. It was the only reason she was even standing there. “But all you’ve given us is vague mentions of something involving Diaz. You want our help, you have to give me something real. Otherwise I walk out that door, and I tell my friends to destroy every file you could remotely be interested in at ARGUS.”

Carrie stilled, the anger bubbling under the surface. She cut her gaze to them, like she had just realized exactly who she was dealing with. Felicity wasn’t the same person she had been when Cupid had crashed her faux wedding to Oliver, hell she wasn’t the same person she had been six months ago. There was a layer of steel that ran the course of her veins now, and she wouldn’t let anyone jerk her around.

“Now we’re leaving,” she said taking a step back towards the door. “This was a mistake.”

Her and Dinah turned towards the door, one step, then two. An arrow flew between their heads, carrie’s signature heart arrowhead embedding itself in the frame above the door. The thing attached to it was what caught Felicity’s attention.

It was a picture of a little girl, maybe three or four, surrounded by several bodyguards.

“What the hell is this?” Dinah turned back, and Felicity had to place a hand on her arm to keep her from releasing a cry in the small apartment. 

“This is all you’re getting until I have what I want,” Carrie replied. “This girl, Diaz is going to kidnap her. And if someone or a team of someone’s, were to stop him and save her. Well let’s say her parents would be very inclined to offer you just about anything. Perhaps even a pardoned for your dear husband?”

Fear flashed in her mind. She imagined Will again, scared and alone the three times he had been kidnapped since finding out who his dad was. He still had nightmares over what happened on Lian Yu, and she couldn’t do anything to erase those from his mind. But she could stop someone else’s child from ever having to go through that.

“Who is she?”

Carrie shook her head. “Not until I get what I want.”

“Diaz could kill her,” Felicity pleaded. “You can’t be that heartless.”

“I am looking out for me,” she reiterated. “And I will gladly tell you every detail I have, after I have the file I need.”

“We can just run the picture,” Dinah said, shaking her head. “We could get a hit off it, and you’d be left with nothing.”

“You could do that,” Carrie replied. “But she’s a kid and it could take days to find out who she is, and then to figure out when and how Ricardo plans to achieve his goal. By the time you unravel the pieces you could cost someone their child. Are you really willing to risk her safety, so you don’t have to help me?”

Felicity could feel her heart pound against her ribs. She couldn’t risk it. She wouldn’t put someone through the same pain and anxiety of losing their child, even for a few hours. This was about more than Oliver. It hurt everyday without him there, but she could live with that pain. She couldn’t live with costing someone their child. And she knew of he was standing next to her, he would agree.

“Fine,” she said, and Dinah’s gaze shifted to her. She could also hear the course of outcry from the team in her ear. 

“Felicity, wait,” Digg said, but she ignored him.

“What’s the file?”

“Felicity,” Dinah urged next to her. “Let’s talk about this.”

“115-307,” she replied with a smile. “Call me when you get it, and we’ll exchange. But you better hurry, because we both know Diaz isn’t the type of person who will wait to execute his plans.”

Cutter threw something at the ground, and before Felicity could even think Dinah was grabbing her arm and pulling her towards the door. 

Smoke had filled the room, and once it cleared she saw that the window was open and Carrie was nowhere to be found. 

She should have known Cupid would pull something like this to get away. But that didn’t matter. She had told them exactly how to get the rest of the information from her. Just a single ARGUS file, and they could save a little girl, maybe even get Oliver out of Slabside. They could do this, she knew it. They just had to be willing to try.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys. 
> 
> So it's been like a month. It's been a crazy month. I had some sickness, then some family stuff happened, and then I found out more family stuff. Plus work and life. But I'm back, and hopefully you guys are ready for another chapter. Because I know I am. I'm gonna stop rambling now. Enjoy.
> 
> Kayla

“I cannot believe she pulled a smoke bomb on us,” Dinah groaned as they walked into the makeshift lair. It still hurt sometimes to see the drab place. She missed the bunker, what it represented. Her and Oliver. United. 

“You know what they say, stick with the classics.”

“Hey,” Dinah grabbed at her arm and held her in place. “Why did you agree to her demands so easily? We could have gotten more out of her. We could have done this without giving into what she wanted?”

“And then have her go straight to Diaz and tell him we know his plan?”

“If this even is his plan.”

“Dinah, I know this sound like a long shot.”

“And I know you want Oliver back.”

“This isn’t about Oliver,” she countered. By then John and the rest of the team had walked over, having changed back into their day clothes. 

“Felicity…” Roy started giving her a look she was sure was close to pity. 

“It isn’t,” she insisted walking past them all. “You heard Cupid. Diaz is planning on kidnapping a little girl. He wants to tear a family apart. Could any of you live with yourself if we didn’t stop him?”

“Of course not,” John spoke, standing tall amidst the group. “But we have to play this smart too. Just because Cutter says she knows details, doesn’t mean she’ll give them up if we give her what she wants.”

“I agree,” she took the photo from her pocket, and handed it to Curtis. “Use the facial recognition software to start a trace. And if you have to, use the Star Labs satellite to boost the signal.”

“I thought we only use that for emergencies?” But Curtis shifted his gaze once she glared at him. “I just mean, well if Diaz is targeting this kid, and we have the knowledge before it happens, shouldn’t we consider telling Agent Watson?”

“No.”

“Felicity I know you think this is how we get Oliver back, but the FBI banned us from vigilante duty. The task force is no joke now. They barely even let Dinah rejoin the department.”

“Don’t remind me,” Dinah added with a scoff. “Like that place would be any better off without me.”

“I’m just saying, we’re all risking our freedom by not going to Watson with this.”

“You think she can take down Diaz?” Felicity could feel the heat bubbling in her. “You think she can do anything different than she has the last six months?”

“I’m just-- I think we should at least consider going to her for help.”

“The last time one of us went to the FBI for  _ help _ , they put Oliver in prison.”

“That was his choice!”

The room stilled. No one knew how to react to Curtis’ outburst, and Felicity herself felt the words like a punch to the gut. She knew it was true, she let the pain and anger over Oliver’s decision sit in her for months. She didn’t need Curtis to remind her of that, she had an empty bed and a sad teenager at home. What she needed was her friends backing her play, no matter what.

“Go home Curtis,” it was Dinah who spoke, folding her arms and gesturing to the stairs. She didn’t say it like Felicity would have. There was no anger in Dinah’s words, just a resignation that this was how it would be. 

He didn’t argue, though she suspected part of him wanted to. He just dropped his head a little and walked towards the exit.

Felicity felt the tension fill her. She didn’t want the team to crack again. They were still healing from the previous fissures, she knew they couldn’t survive another collapse.

“I should get started on that search,” she pulled all their focus back to her. “And Digg, if you could call Lyla, tell her what’s going on, and see about that file Cutter wants.”

“Yeah no problem, but Felicity maybe you wanna go home for a bit?”

“I have to get started on this, John I can’t just--”

“I’ll send this photo to Cisco, see if he wants to lend a hand,” Roy said, taking it from her as he squeezed her hand. “You should go home and see Will.”

She knew he was right, they both were. She was all William had, even if he didn’t want to talk to her right then. But she couldn’t help the pull to stay. 

“Come on,” John said and gestured towards the door with his head. “I’ll take you home. Roy you’ll call us if Cisco finds anything?

“Got it,” he said, but he was already busing himself with the computer.

“I’ll stay too,” Dinah said settling herself against a cement column. “I’m not on duty today and honestly I could use the workout time.”

Rene hesitated. “I gotta get to Zoe’s practice. But if you come up with anything Red you call me too, kay?”

“I hate that name,” Roy replied but grinned. “And yes, I call everyone if Cisco finds anything.”

“Okay,” Felicity nodded letting John guide her out. She knew if Roy had asked Cisco, the two of them could handle the search. She knew Dinah would be there if anything immediate came up. She even knew Rene was a short car ride away. She had to go home eventually. Even if everytime she did it felt like she was walking into a tomb.

\---

John stayed quiet most of the way back to her apartment, and normally Felicity would be grateful. She was sick of talking about what happened. Not when the person she wanted to talk to most was locked up.  

But for Digg not to say anything the entire ride, Felicity knew it meant he was gearing up some kind of speech. And she would avoid said speech if she could.

“So, want me to walk you up?” he asked as they pulled to a stop in front of the building. 

She had thought about moving. After the four months in ARGUS protected custody, when she became the very last version of herself she had ever thought she’d be. When the pink had still started to fade, and her and Will had come back because he missed his school, his friends, his life, she had strongly considered it. The entire place was Oliver. He was in every appliance and furnishing, she could feel his presence as strong as anything else in the apartment. And when she found herself googling new places to live one night, she had almost been ready to let it go. 

But this was the home he built for William. It was the place he bought and outfitted with stuff he thought Will would like. As much as she missed him. And as much as she wanted to wash the pain of him not being there away, she couldn’t leave. 

“I think the two guards at the front lobby and the two outside my door, are enough to keep me safe,” she gave him a grin that she hoped he wouldn't question. “Don’t worry about me.”

“I will never not worry about you,” he replied. “Besides I think we should talk about what happened.”

“Curtis was just fired up.”

“I’m not talking about Curtis.” His eyes never left her.

“John…”

“I get that Cutter has info. And Roy and I told you we would back whatever decision you made. That’s not gonna change.”

“But?”

“I think we both know that no matter what goes down, if this intel is right, if we follow all the crumbs she leaves us, it still might not bring him home.”

Felicity nodded. She could feel the burn of tears in her eyes. But if she broke now, she’d have to face William with them. And she couldn’t do that. “I know that.”

“So we saddle up with Carrie Cutter, give her exactly what she wants, and what?”

“Digg, there’s a little girl at risk,” her voice was low when she looked away, wiping at the corners of her eyes. “Diaz is gonna follow through with this, and I can’t…  _ we _ can’t let him. I want to bring Oliver home more than I have ever wanted anything in my life. But I made a promise to myself when I joined this team.”

“Oh yeah?”

“I promised myself that as long as I was saving people, all the bad stuff shouldn’t matter. So yeah, I want Cutter’s intel to bring Oliver home, but not as much as I want to save that little girl.”

“Okay,” he nodded slowly. “I’ll go talk with Lyla, see about the file.”

“What if she says no?”

“I highly doubt her ‘no’ is gonna keep you out of the ARGUS servers.”

“I don’t want to put you in that position Digg.”

“You’re not,” he shook her words off. “I love my wife, and she knows that. But she also knows what we do is important. And I don’t doubt she’ll see this the way we do.”

“Okay,” she popped open the door and took a deep breath of the crisp air. “Call me after you talk to Lyla.”

“I will.”

Despite the ARGUS agents right at the front door, Digg didn’t pull away from the curb. She knew for a fact he would still be down there until she texted that she was inside the apartment. They had all done this to some degree since her and William came back. Curtis would pick her up for work. Rene drove William to school. Dinah would swing by when Raisa needed to go grocery shopping. Roy camped out in her living room, his stuff covering ever surface. But John insisted on going the extra mile somedays. He handpicked each of the agents who were stationed in her building. And when they rotated shifts at the twelve o’clock marks, Digg was there to make sure the new guys showed up. 

She hated the precaution, hated the fact that her hair would stand on end at the slightest squeak of a shoe, god forbid someone slam something down near her, but it was necessary. Ricardo Diaz was still out there. And she knew him too well to think he’d ever give up on going after the last links that would break her husband. 

They could have stayed away, could have stayed safe in the new lives Lyla had set up for them. But it hadn’t felt like living. Cut off from everyone and everything that remotely felt like home. It felt like running away. She came back to stand up for her family and her home, she came back to fight.

She waved at the guards standing next to her door, Dom was eating a sandwich, pastrami on rye, while Walsh was regaling him with pictures of his six months old daughter. 

_ I wish I could send you both home. _ She didn’t like the idea of taking these men from their families. But Lyla and John insisted that as long as Diaz was out there, the ARGUS presence wasn’t leaving her building. And even after they caught him, who knows who else could come after them next.

“Hey boys,” she greeted with a half smile. Then gestured to Dom. “I see Raisa made your favorite?”

“Like always Mrs. Queen.”

That was the other thing about her bodyguards. They never called her Felicity, or Ms. Smoak. It was always Mrs. Queen. She had long stopped trying to get them on less formal terms. She called them by their first names. Or at least she thought those were their first names. It’s how John had introduced them to her two months ago. Dom and Walsh. Her second shift guards. Max and Junior took first shift, but she wouldn’t see them again until Will left for school. 

She gave them a small wave as she went inside, closing the door behind her. 

The living room was a mess, as usual, thank you Roy.

“Felicity,” Raisa stood before her with a basket half full of Roy’s assorted belongings. “You are home early today.”

“You don’t have to clean up after Roy,” she said moving closer to take the basket and set it down. “He’s an adult, he can do his own laundry.”

“I like to do laundry. It makes me feel needed.”

“You are needed Raisa.” Because without her this place would be a disaster. There’d never be food in the fridge or a clean anything. 

It’s not that Felicity couldn’t do her own dishes or laundry. But the last few months had been harder than she thought they could be.

“You have another letter,” she said pulling Felicity focus to the coffee table next to the sofa. “William is already in his room with his own.”

She didn’t have to pick it up to know who the letters were from. Oliver wrote them every chance he could. At first they didn’t get them, not for the first couple months. Then Lyla had sent them to her, and it was like the dam broke all over again in her. 

William read his letters everyday. In the morning, after school, before bed, even when he’d wake in the dead of night from one of the countless nightmares that still haunted him. Oliver wasn’t there physically, but his words were the only thing that could calm Will after one of those. She envied him for that.

“Thank you Raisa.”

“I will go start this load, and then dinner,” she said placing a hand to Felicity’s cheek. “Lasagna tonight. Mr. Ramirez called and said he and Zoe would be over later.”

Another thing she couldn’t escape. Someone was always over for dinner. Lyla, Digg, and JJ most weekends. Dinah took Mondays and Wednesdays because she wouldn’t be on duty. Tuesdays were Rene, Thursdays Roy, and Fridays were supposed to be Curtis. She supposed Rene decided to come instead because of the fight earlier. Good. She didn’t think she could see her business partner yet. She didn’t blame him for his words. There had been no lies in them, but they stung harder than she would have wanted to admit.

“I’ll be in the bedroom,” she said slipping the letter into her hand. “I just need to lie down for a bit.”

It was a lie. They both knew it. But for some reason, every single day, she would say it again. 

Once she closed the door behind her, shooting John a text that assured she was safe and inside, she sat on her bed and stared at the envelope. 

Her name glared up at her, in Oliver’s handwriting, begging, pleading her to open it. Sometimes she didn’t. There was a box full of unopened letters under the bed. She couldn’t explain why she couldn’t read those ones. What difference one letter made from another? She knew already she would open this one.

It was shorter than some, longer than others. But reading the words stabbed at her heart.

_ Felicity, _

_ I miss you. And I wish I… no I know I can’t change the past. There’s nothing I can do to fix what I’ve done. I know that. I just… I miss talking to you. _

_ Love,  _

_ Oliver _

It wasn’t fair. She knew she should go see him. She wanted to, god did she want to see him. But she couldn’t do it. It would break her heart to see him like that. 

John went every week, and she knew he was downplaying things for her benefit. 

_ How is he? _   She’d ask.

_ Better than expected. _  She figured that meant new bruises.

_ Is he… did he look well? _

_ He’s eating. _ He hadn’t lost more weight, which was good. 

That would end their talk. She couldn’t bare to hear any more than that. 

But she did write to him. Not often, not nearly as much as he wrote to them. But she couldn’t not say anything to him. Not for six months. 

She wouldn’t tell him how she was feeling. Instead she’d list everything happening. She told him all about William and Roy, and everyone else.  But she found herself ending each letter the same way.

_ I miss you more than yesterday. _

It was the only thing she could give him. It was the only thing she could think to let him know that even though she was still angry, he was in her heart forever. And nothing would change that.

A light knock sounded at the door, and she pushed her hair back before she turned to face William.

“Raisa said you were back.”

“Yeah,” she cleared her throat as she folded the letter back into its envelope. “I-- well we decided to call it early.”

“Oh,” he replied with a nod. His eyes were trained on the letter, but he bring it up. Maybe for the same reason she didn’t ask him about the one’s Oliver sent to him. “She also said Rene and Zoe were coming over.”

“They are.”

“But it’s Friday?” His confusion was almost enough to make her smile. Their lives had become too predictable.

“Curtis had some work he had to do,” she said, landing south of the truth. She had decided somewhere between meeting with Cupid and that moment, that she wouldn’t tell Will what was going on. Not until she knew 100% if it would bring Oliver home. He didn’t deserve to get his hopes crushed like that. “And Zoe says that one night a week is hardly enough time with Raisa’s cooking.”

“She’s not wrong,” he leaned against the door frame. “Remember the crap we were eating before we came back?”

“I learned some things,” she defended, but at least his teasing had a hint of happiness laced in it. “But you’re right, Master Chef I am not.”

“Look I kinda crashed last night, and well…” he trailed off shuffling his foot against the carpet. “I wanted to apologize for yesterday.”

“Will--”

“It was crappy of me to do that to you,” he looked up and sighed. “I know you miss Dad. And I was just ticked that this thing kinda dropped in front of us and you didn’t seem to care.”

“Come here,” she reached out and when he got close enough she tugged on his hand until he was sitting next to her. “I know that the last few months have been hardest on you.”

“Doesn’t mean I should act like a dick.”

“Strike one on the language foul there.”

“Sorry,” he said, but then continued. “I just... I want him back.”

“I know you do,” she pulled him to her side, letting his head settle on her shoulder. “And I do too. More than anything.”

“Do you think he’s okay?” 

She barely heard it, Will’s voice had been so low.

“Bud…”

“He’s in there with guys he put away right? What if they hurt him? What if--”

“There is not a single person on this earth stronger than your father,” she moved until they could look at each other. “And I know he will do everything he can to survive. He always does.”

Will nodded as he pulled away. “I’ll go set the table for dinner.”

“Okay,” she smiled as he made his way to the door. “Will?”

He turned back at the last second. “Yeah?”

“Thank you.”

“What for?”

“For being exactly the person you were born to be,” she answered with a smile. “I mean it.”

He shook his head and headed down the hall. 

She was about to follow when her phone rang. She looked down, seeing Lyla’s name flash across the screen.

“Lyla, is everything alright?” she asked, panic filling her instantly. The worst coming to mind.

“Everything’s fine Felicity,” she replied. “Johnny was telling me about your meeting today.”

“Before you say no--”

“You can have the file. ARGUS isn’t throwing a wrench in this one.”

“Really? Just like that?”

“Well no,” there was hesitation in her voice. “See the file Cutter wants is on a specific drive… one that no current ARGUS agents have access to.”

“How is that possible?” But before Lyla could answer, her brain had already supplied her the truth. “Waller.”

“I guess Amanda wanted to take several secrets to the grave with her. But if we can get into the drive, the file is yours.”

“And by ‘we’ you mean me, right?”

“That’s exactly what I mean.”

The ghost of Amanda Waller stood between her and freeing Oliver. She stood between the team and saving someone. She would burn down hell itself before she’d let that happen.

“Bring it to me tonight after Will's in bed, we’ll get started then.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really enjoyed writing this chapter. I hope you enjoy reading it.

It was late before she called Lyla back, letting her know Will was finally out for the night. She had considered sending him home with Zoe and Rene, but he was too much like his father. Anything that broke more from the norm than it already had, would send up a red flag. And as much as she hated keeping things from him she knew it was for the best. 

As long as Diaz still walked free, she wasn’t taking any more chances. She would get to the bottom of this and put him away. And hopefully it meant Oliver could come home. But if not… If Diaz somehow wound up in prison next to her husband. She knew how that would end. And she wouldn’t pretend, even to herself, that she wasn’t rooting for his slow and painful death.

“We could to this tomorrow,” Lyla said as she let them into the apartment. John nodded to the guards by her door, and pushed it closed behind him. 

“I would rather get into this as soon as possible.”

“Yeah we figured,” he said moving further into the room. 

Lyla hadn’t moved though, she stood statuesque by the door, her hands clutched around a flat rectangular item. Felicity knew it had to be the drive The one everything seemed to rest on.

“Any idea what’s on it?” she questioned as she reached to take it from Lyla. “What would Waller feel the need to keep secret even after her death?”

“Best guess,” Lyla sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. “I would say something to do with Task Force X.”

“The Suicide Squad?” 

Felicity shot a look to John, he leaned against the back of the chair, his arms crossed. “That’s what Lawton liked to call it.”

“Cutter was on the squad right? Towards the end?”

Lyla gave a small nod.

“That last mission with Deadshot, was her first in the field. She’d been locked up with the rest of them for almost a year. I heard from a few agents that she became friendly with a few of them,” she paused, and Felicity was sure both her friends were recalling the events of their last mission. “I don’t know what happened to most of the squad after I quit. And I never asked when I came back what happened to the files Amanda must have had on each member. There was so much paperwork and too many boxes to go through. I thought I would be wading through them until well after JJ graduated college.”

“But you found the drive?”

“A few weeks ago,” she replied. “Who knows, maybe Cutter knew where the file was all along. Maybe she knew we couldn’t get into it. So she came to you.”

“She’s cunning, but she’s not omniscient,” Felicity turned the device over in her hands. “She wouldn’t have had a way of knowing Waller moved the files off of ARGUS’s main servers. Did you’re guys already try to hack it?”

“The tech department tried every password combo they could think if without triggering the fail-safe.”

“fail-safe?” she looked up darting a glance between Lyla and Digg.

“Waller programed in a fail-safe,” Digg said gesturing with his hands. “It started ticking down one every time the boys tried a new code. Not hard to figure that once it gets to zero the thing is basically scrape.”

“And how many attempts did ARGUS’s best and brightest leave me with?”

“Four,” Lyla said with a groan. “And then the files are up in smoke. Hopefully figuratively, but it was Waller’s so be careful.”

“Amanda Waller always had a flair for the dramatics,” she huffed, turning it over a few times. Now that she was really looking at it she could see the device for all that it was. She saw the counter they had referred to, a digital marker with a glaring four staring up at her. She could almost hear the challenge it was issuing.

_ “Do you dare, Felicity?” _

She had the overwhelming desire to smash it into a wall. But that would end their process considerably faster. 

“We don’t have to do this you know,” John looked at her, watching the device like it might combust from too many hands touching it. “We could work the other lead, leave Cutter twisting in the wind.”

“No,” Felicity shook her head. “We can’t. You know Cutter, you’ve worked alongside her, both of you did. Does she strike you as the kind of person who would let it go if we didn’t give her want she wants?”

“There’s always another option,” Lyla looked at both of them. “If we tell Cutter we have the file, and get her to disclose the rest of her intel, then we could take her into custody after that.”

“That’s also a risk.”

“So is letting the clock tick down on this while a kid’s life could be in jeopardy,” Lyla pointed out. “You are the best at what you do Felicity. Everyone knows that, but none of us knows what you can do better than you. So look at me and tell me you can figure this out before we lose the chance to stop Diaz from hurting this kid. Tell me that and I will leave you in charge of this.”

She wanted to tell Lyla she could handle it. That if anyone could crack this it would be her. But then the last few times she went up against Diaz flashed in her mind. He got a hundred steps ahead of her somehow. She knew it had to do with Cayden James. He somehow figured a way to use Cayden’s tech and knowledge to best the team. More than once. And she hated it.

“I have to try,” she said, knowing it wasn’t the answer any of them were looking for, but it was the most honest. “I can’t let him get away with anything else. If I don’t stop him, if we don’t stop him, there’s no one else. We don’t back down, we get up, and we keep fighting. Because if we don’t who will?”

“Okay,” Lyla nodded, giving her a smile. “We should leave you to it.”

As Digg stood, he pulled Felicity into his side. “You need me to run and get you some coffee?”

“I have a coffee pot,” she replied.

“So the largest size I can get?”

“I’m going to go relieve the sitter,” Lyla said, leaning in and giving him a quick kiss. “At least drop by home before JJ’s up.”

“I’ll be there to make you both breakfast.” 

He had whispered it, but the moment was enough to have Felicity turning away. The gnawing hole in her heart aching more than usual. And for a millisecond, she could feel the ghost of Oliver’s arm around her, his voice whispering in her ear. But she shook it off. She wouldn’t fall apart about that. Not now. Not when she had work to do.

“Digg, seriously, let your wife take you home,” she motioned to the door. “I have coffee, and you can bring me the largest cup by mid morning.” 

He looked over at her, conflict warring on his face. They used to have a routine if Felicity had a difficult computer problem. But things had changed. Their lives had changed so much from those first couple of years in the lair. He was needed at home more than she needed him there.

Plus if he stayed, she knew he’d try to talk to her about Oliver. And she needed to be able to focus on ones and zeros. She needed to lose herself in code if they wanted any hope at cracking Waller’s uncrackable riddle.

“Call me if you need anything,” he said watching her closely. “And I mean anything.”

“I’ll be fine Digg,” she gestured to the door. And even though they both knew that wasn’t quite true, he left her anyway.

Once she was alone she turned the drive over and over in her hands. 

“Don’t blow up on me,” she muttered moving towards the dining table where her laptop sat. “I need you and you need me. Drives are meant to store data. But what’s the point in storing it, if it gets deleted when someone tries to use? No point at all.”

She looked around the apartment her eyes landing on a photo of her, Will, Thea, and Oliver. Thanksgiving last year. Digg had taken the picture. Somehow it calmed her. She plugged the drive into her computer and got started.

\---

Three. And a few keystrokes. Now two. The number blinked at her with a harsh intensity. 

Shit.

She had to use the last two chances carefully. But honestly this was harder than hacking the NSA or the FBI, or any lettered government organizations. Felicity could do it in a heartbeat if she had like three supercomputers and about a weeks time. But she was running out of the precious commodity. She could feel it slipping away like a theft into the darkness. And with it it took their only chance to stop Diaz. Her only chance to save Oliver. 

“Have you been up all night?”

She startled at William’s approach. He grew more into his father’s son every day, which apparently also meant silent steps. 

“What time is it?”

“Nine,” he replied setting down his orange juice and a poptart. 

“Then yes, I have been up all night,” she replied drinking down the last few drops of coffee. It held a bitterness that only came from sitting for way too long. “You should eat something healthier than a poptart.”

He eyed her with a smirk. “Says the woman drinking down stone cold coffee. Have you eaten anything?” 

“I will eat when Raisa gets here.”

“It’s Saturday,” he gave her a look, and then continued. “Raisa’s off.”

Crap. It  _ was _ Saturday. They usually spent the weekends hanging out, Felicity would coax most of the details of the week out of him while they played too many video games and ate junk and leftovers until the Diggle’s showed for dinner.

She would have to call one of the team to come over and hang with him while she worked on the drive. She couldn’t work on it too much longer at home without his questions starting to fly. And she had a difficult time lying to the eyes he shared with his father. 

“I knew that,” she said slowly, flashing him a grin. “What do you say about seeing if Rene could take you and Zoe to that science exhibit?”

“We were gonna go see that next week.”

“I know, but you would love seeing it twice, right?”

“You have to work today, don’t you?”

She reached for his hand, and he let her squeeze it. It was hit or miss on whether he would. She knew Will was growing way too fast to baby him, but sometimes she couldn’t help but see him as this tiny little thing. So young and innocent. Someone the universe kept trying to knock down. But he got back up, each and every time. She knew he got that from Oliver too.

“If this wasn’t really important, you know I wouldn’t.”

“Yeah, I get it,” he shrugged grabbing his food and drink. “I don’t need to hang with Zoe, I can just read in my room while you work.”

“Will--”

“It’s cool, Felicity. Really, don’t worry so much.”

But she did worry. She worried she was failing miserably at raising a preteen boy. She worried that bringing him back to Star City was only hurting him more than staying away had. But mostly she worried about the hole Oliver left in their son, about how Will had spent more of his life without his father than he had with him. How he didn’t even have a full year from his mom’s death before his entire world collapsed once again. She worried their lives as vigilantes, the choices they had all made for years before he had come to them, had broken him in irreparable ways. 

She shook her head and went back to work on the only thing she knew she could fix at that moment. She could fix this. She could get to the bottom of Waller’s unsolvable riddle. 

Before she could dive back in there was a knock on the door. She tensed for a moment, until she remembered the guards. No one was allowed up to her floor unless they were on the approved list. She knew because the first week after coming back, Sara and Ray came to visit, and the ARGUS agents almost broke Ray’s nose.  _ Almost. _

She had been expecting John with as much coffee as he could possibly hold, but instead when she pulled the door open she was met with a different face. Curtis. 

“Hey,” he said rocking back on his heels. “I wasn’t sure if after yesterday I would be allowed up.”

“You didn’t say anything that wasn’t true,” she replied pulling away from the door and letting him follow her inside. “I mean you could have picked a better way to say it.”

“I know, and Felicity you got to know that I respect Oliver for what he did. Okay that kinda choice, I don’t think any of us could have made it.”

She almost argued with him. She almost said she would have made it. Because it was the truth. She would have give up her freedom to save him, and Will, and the entire city too. But he beat her to it.

“I was just freaking out about Watson and Diaz. But I’m on your side,” he folded his hands as he nodded. “Whatever you need from me, I’m here for it.”

“Thank you,” she said with a half smile. “What I could use is some coffee.”

“That… I don’t actually have. Nick and I are kinda doing this caffeine cleanse,” he explained with a look that fell more towards a grimace. “It’s been torture. I walked past Jitters this morning and nearly cried.”

“So you came over to apologize but didn’t bring me coffee?”

“Sorry,” he said, then pulled a pack of papers from his back pocket. “Is Will up?”

“Yeah he’s in his room reading. Why?”

“I was going over this level in Deadplan,” he gestured to the papers again, and Felicity could now see the walkthrough printed before her for Will’s favorite game. “And I can’t seem to get off the ground floor of level 13. And this thing is no help at all. It’s impossible, but Will said he was on to level 20 already so… If he’s up for telling me how he figured it out that would be great.”

“You don’t go up,” she said as she walked towards the kitchen in search of fresh coffee. She needed another boost, Curtis’ cleanse be damned.

“What?”

“The level you don’t go up,” she explained as she poured the coffee into her mug. “It’s the fail-safe for the forklift. You have to hit it and it knocks the wall down letting you get to the basement level.”

“Wait seriously?”

“I mean how do you think he beat…” But Felicity could see something else clicking in her head. “fail-safe.”

“You said that already, maybe you need less coffee and more sleep.”

“No you don’t get it,” she shook her head and them smiled. “It’s not a fail-safe like something's going to go boom, but a fail-safe that triggers the safe part. I need to let it fail to get in.”

“What are we even talking about right now?”

She didn’t have time to explain, at least not to Curtis. She had to call John and Lyla. This was genius, this was something Waller would do. And she finally figured it out.

She pulled out her phone, hitting Digg’s speed dial, as it rang she could hear it faintly in the hall. A second later another knock on her door.

As she pulled it open she grinned at him. “I figured it out, I know how to get into Waller’s drive.”

She expected him to smile, for him to at least hand over the coffee he promised. But there was no coffee and John wasn’t smiling.

“What’s wrong?”

“Felicity,” he started then something seemed to catch in his throat. “My buddy at Slabside gave me a call… There was an altercation this morning.”

_No._ She felt some part of her heart crack, threatening to crumble the rest of it. This couldn't happen. She barely recognized the whisper as it escaped her lips. "John?"

“Oliver’s being life flighted to Starling General right now.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys,   
> Are you ready for it? *cue T. Swift bass drop* But seriously I can't wait for you guys to read this chapter. I really enjoyed writing it. So I hope that shines through here. I will stop rambling and let you get to it.
> 
> love ya,  
> Kayla
> 
> P.S. I'm not a doctor, I don't know things. But this sounded plausible so I went with it.

She knew how long it took to get to Starling General from just about everywhere in the city. She had rushed to the hospital more times than she would care to count over the years. But Felicity also knew she had never felt quite like this as she did. Friends, people she considered as close as family, and none of that pain compared to Oliver. She couldn’t lose him. Not like this. She looked down at her hands, the nervous twitched she adopted from him doing little to comfort her now. 

Digg’s strong hand moved to rest over hers. “We don’t know anything yet.”

_ Yet. _ She hated the word. It always left everything in some limbo balance that could go either way. Because what they didn’t know could quickly become what they didn’t want to know. And too many ideas swirled in her head.

William sat in the backseat, too still and too quiet for a boy his age. She could only imagine the fears that battled in his own head. If this was the moment he would lose Oliver like he lost Samantha. She scrunched her eyes closed, fighting back the tears. 

“John’s right,” she whispered as she turned to face him. Then she repeated the same words she hated moments before. “We don’t know anything yet.” 

“What if,” but the sentence faded from his lips, his head shaking. She reached for his hands, but hesitated. Sometimes the guilt of being the only one there with him overwhelmed her. She wasn’t his mother, though she loved him more than she ever thought she could love another human being. He became apart of her heart long before her and Oliver had gotten things right again. Because Will came from him, and she loved everything that came from Oliver. 

She pushed the guilt back as far as she could and took his hand in hers. “We can’t think like that. We wait until we know more.”

He nodded, the tears swelling and falling. She moved her hand just long enough to brush them away. 

She wanted to apologize. Because if she had tried harder. If she had fought longer, maybe they could have brought him home by now. And the twisted voice in her head told her maybe they would bring him home after all, just not the way they had intended. 

_ No.  _ She wanted to scream. Oliver would make it. He would be fine. Because if he wasn’t… if he didn’t, then Diaz won. And Oliver would have broken his promise, and his mission. And she wouldn’t allow that to happen. She couldn’t.

“We’re here,” John said, as he pulled into a parking space.

Twelve and a half minutes. It should have taken longer from the apartment, given the time of day, and traffic. But then again John loved Oliver as much as he loved her. And there’s no way he followed the speed limit once. 

Paralyzing dread threatened to flood her system, keeping her frozen in her seat. But she pushed past it, and got out. 

William followed her lead, pressing close to her as he did. And they were only left to the cool Fall air until Digg rounded the car, and put his arm around William’s other side. He did the hardest part for them, he steered them towards the door.

When they didn’t stop at the front desk, Felicity got the feeling that Digg already knew where they had taken Oliver. Her suspicions were confirmed when the elevator doors opened on the ICU floor. Two officers were positioned near a door at the end of the hall, while the one person Felicity didn’t want to see most of all, stood talking to Dr. Schwartz. 

“What the hell is she doing here?” Felicity hissed, as Agent Watson turned towards them.

She could feel herself tense. She blamed Watson for Oliver being in prison. She had already come to terms with that. But now? Her husband was lying in a hospital from something that happened  _ because _ she put him in prison with a bunch of criminals who wanted him dead. 

“Mrs. Queen,” Watson greeted. “I have to--”

“You don't get to call me that,” she cut her off, letting go of William only because she knew John was there. “And you don’t have a damn thing to say to me.”

Watson pursed her lips, but she stepped back as the doctor moved closer to her.

“Felicity,” Dr. Schwartz, placed a hand on her arm and moved her towards the chairs.

“What happened?” she couldn’t take the idea of being treated with kid gloves. She needed to know. “Is he… is he gonna be okay?”

“The best I can gather is that one of the other inmates pulled a blade on him,” she said eyeing William as he and John came to stand next to them. “Would you like us to speak privately?”

“I wanna know what’s going on with my dad,” Will insisted as he looked at her. And god if that didn’t work on her every time.

“It’s okay, Dr. Schwartz, go on,” she put her arm around Will as much for her as it was for him.

“The blade entered the abdomen, and we believe nicked the liver. But because of its crude make, a piece of it broke off as the object was removed.”

William pushed his face into her shoulder. She could feel the tears catch on her shirt. 

“Doc,” John started, his hand on Will’s shoulder. “What comes next?”

“We’ve given him some pain medication and a steroid shot to reduce the inflammation. We’re waiting for that to fully take effect before we take him into surgery to remove the piece and assess things further. So right now he’s stable, and I’m optimistic, but we won’t know until we do the surgery.”

“Can we see him?” John asked, because she couldn’t form the words.

“As I was telling Agent Watson,” the doctor said with a little more ice than Felicity had ever heard in her voice. “I believe it would do Mr. Queen a world of good to see his family before he goes into surgery.”

Watson watched Felicity, she could tell the agent’s eyes had been on her since they stepped off the elevator. 

She found her strength again as she settled William into John’s arms. “I’m seeing my husband.”

“Mrs.--” she cut herself off when Felicity glared. “This is a security issue. I’m well aware of how determined Mr. Queen can be when his family is involved. I wouldn’t want him to try and do something stupid.”

“Like what? Escape out a three story window, while on painkillers, with a knife wound to the side?” Felicity scoffed. If anyone could do it, it would be Oliver. But she also knew deep down he would never try. “He’s in here because you put him in a prison with people who wanted him dead.”

“He broke the law.”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean it should cost him his life,” she was on the verge of breaking. But she wouldn’t let Watson see that. “I have to see him.”

“Let Mr. Queen’s family in to see him,” Watson looked at the officers. 

“You two go,” John looked at them, then pulled out his phone. “I’m gonna let everyone know what’s going on.”

She nodded, mouthing a thank you, that he waved off. 

The closer they got to the door the more William seemed to mold into her side, but she didn’t mind. He was keeping her standing.

Everything was chaos. Her reasons for staying away and the ones that brought him before her again. They pushed the door open and the breath caught in her throat. A selfish corner of her heart began to sing a little. After months of only letters and memories to hold on to, she could see him. His face was bruised, and a cut ran horizontal across his forehead. But he was still every bit her Oliver underneath.

He stirred at the sound, waves of tension filling every muscle she could see. And it broke her heart. It had taken years for Oliver to break down those barriers. And within a few short months he had to throw them up again.

His eyes landed on her first, like he couldn’t quite believe it. And she was reminded of a conversation they had years before. He told her everyone he had met for so many years, had only been threats or targets, until he walked into her office. 

Something in the way he looked at her from that hospital bed told her he was thinking about that too.

“Hey buddy,” he said giving William a faint smile. “Come here.”

“Dad,” William whispered, but he left her side and came to sit next to Oliver, his hand hovering close to the sheet. “Sorry.”

“Shh,” Oliver shook his head and reached for him. “You don’t have anything to be sorry for.”

William was crying, not soft careful tears, but the kind that crashed the system after you got them all out. She would know. 

“I wanted to be strong, but--”

“William,” he cut him off. “You can be strong and still cry. Trust me on that.”

“I missed you,” he let his head fall against the bed, and Oliver moved his hand to stroke Will’s hair. “Dad, I missed you so much.”

“There hasn’t been a single moment of these last few months that I haven’t missed you just as much.”

Felicity felt her resolve crack and break around her. She didn’t want to fall in front of Watson, but she was never that strong in front of Oliver.

“I can’t lose you too,” William whispered, and those five words took the last of her will. Her own tears fell and she hand to take a deep breath to keep standing. 

“I know,” Oliver said, still comforting their son. But he moved his gaze to hers. The apology sat there, she could nearly hear it from his lips. But she shook her head to stop him. 

No matter what they had to work through, and she knew they still have miles to go before things were fully okay. She knew she had forgiven him the second their eyes locked. It’s how they worked. 

“I love you,” he said, and she couldn’t stand the distance anymore. 

She moved to his other side, taking his free hand and lacing their fingers together. She brought them to her lips and pressed a kiss to his bruised knuckles. “I love you too.”

They would be okay. After some time, and some talking, they would make it through. But seeing his hand resting on Will’s hair, feeling his fingers against hers, his thumb smoothing across her empty finger. She feared what he might think.

“It didn’t feel right,” she replied, even though she knew he’d never voice the question. “Wearing mine when you couldn’t wear yours.”

She hooked her thumb under the chain around her neck, tugging it into view. Heavy on it sat both their wedding bands, close to her heart always. 

“Yeah,” she could feel the pull, though his strength was depleted, and gave into it. 

Their lips barely brushed, but the love and calm he wanted her to feel rushed through it. She knew what he was trying to do, to reassure her it would all be fine. But he was the one sitting in a hospital bed. He was the one out of the fight this time. And she would be damned if she let it be forever.

“You’re gonna make it through this,” she said, drawing strength from her own words. “We’re gonna make it through.”

“After I’m healed up, they’re going to want me moved back--”

She shook her head. Because that wouldn’t happen. She was done letting things happen to her family.

“I have to go talk to Digg,” she said, placing a kiss to his forehead. “Will stay here with your dad.”

Will didn’t move, she had the feeling he had fallen asleep under Oliver’s touch.

“Felicity?”

She leaned close to his ear. “If you trust me, you will fight like hell to make it out of this surgery. I need you home.”

As she pulled back he nodded like he understood. And she supposed on some level he must have. Like she knew when something was up with him, Oliver had always been just as attuned with her. 

“Be careful,” he whispered back. “I need you just as much.”

“I know.”

She made her way to the door, wiping the tears from beneath her eyes. But she couldn’t leave just yet. “I should have come to see you. I shouldn’t have waited this long.”

“I think,” he said, but his gaze was focused on William. “If you had come, I wouldn’t have been able to stay there for as long as I did. I would have had to get out.”

“Oliver--”

“Do what you need to,” he said with a deep sigh. “I’ll hold the doctors back until someone gets here to sit with William.”

“I will be back before you get out of surgery, I promise.”

“I know,” he gave her a smile. The one he reserved for only her. And it struck her how much she missed it. “I trust you.”

She nodded, leaving the room. The officers were still there, but Watson had gone. Which was good. She couldn’t deal with the FBI agent right then.

“Rene I gotta go.” John stood and put his phone back in his pocket. “How is he?”

“Awake,” she replied, because it’s the only detail that mattered at the moment. “I need to call Raisa to come sit with Will here.”

“Already did that. She’s on her way.”

“How did you...”

“You think I don’t know you well enough by now,” he replied with a smirk. “She’s gonna bring Zoe too. So Will has someone to talk to while he’s in surgery.”

“Okay we need to get…” she trailed off, remembering the officers behind them. She dropped her voice to a bare whisper. “The drive. I know how to access the data. And I want to get it to Cutter before night fall.”

“Because we’re going after Diaz,” Digg guessed, his tone equally low.

“Oliver’s not going back there,” she replied. “Not if I can stop it.”

“Okay, let’s do this then.”

In a normal life, she could sit at the hospital and hold Will’s hand while they waited for Oliver to make it through surgery. They’d buy coffee from the vending machine, and cheap teddy bears from the gift shop. But her life was far from normal. And while she wanted nothing more than to comfort William. She also knew he would understand her leaving. She would make sure her family was never separated again. And she’d save another in the process. It was part of the mission, their mission. At that moment she knew she could do more as Overwatch, than just Felicity. And most of all, Oliver knew it too.

They would be okay. He would be okay. He had to be.


	7. Chapter 7

Star City never got too cold in mid autumn. It rained, often, but the chill usually kept itself at bay. So when Felicity felt the shiver shake to her core, she couldn’t tell if it was the air or the mission that caused it.

“You okay?” Dinah asked as she flanked her left. Digg stood to her right.

“Yeah, I just want to get this done.”

Di nodded, as she looked around the perimeter. “Wild Dog, Arsenal, what do you see?”

“Everything looks good from up here pretty bird,” Roy replied, but Felicity didn’t miss the scowl that Dinah sent in his direction. Roy clearly picked up on it too, when he cleared his throat. “Cupid’s headed to you.”

And Felicity could see her, strolling closer to the pier, her red hair vibrant in the setting light. 

“To think, I was starting to lose faith in you,” she mused leaning against the railing. 

“That’s a mistake most people don’t make twice,” Felicity said as she took the flash drive from her coat pocket. “We have your file.”

Carrie’s eyes we as bright as the light framing her. She wanted to reach for it, Felicity could tell. But she held back. “Just like that?”

“We had a deal,” she pushed, holding the thing delicately between her fingers. “You need to tell us Diaz’s plan and when it’s going down,” Felicity took a step forward, holding the flash drive over the water’s edge. “Otherwise this stays with us.”

“If you knew what that file was, I don’t think you’d play so cavalier with it’s contents,” Carrie gritted, her eyes tracking the object. 

“Cutter, come on,” Digg spoke next. “This is what you wanted, and it’s not coming with a set of cuffs. So just tell us what we need to know.”

“Send your friends away,” Carrie said, meeting Felicity’s eyes for the first time. “That’s the new deal. They go, I tell you what I know, then they can play the hero while we chat.”

“No,” she shook her head, images of Oliver lying in a hospital bed, of William crying over him. “No. No more deals, no more changes. You kidnapped my son so I would help you. You said you had information on Diaz. And you’re going to tell us what you know.”

“Or what?”

She took a step closer. “You said Diaz killed a friend of yours for the hell of it right? What would he do if he knew you were here spilling all his secrets?”

Cupid let her eyes drift between the three of them, was there fear behind them? Maybe just a twinge. But as her gaze fell to the flash drive again, Felicity wasn’t certain Cutter only feared her own safety.

“Senator Andrews,” Cutter finally let slip.

“What about her?”

“She’s Diaz’s real target,” she continued with a sigh. “He already has a line on her daughter, sent his slugs in as her security detail months ago.”

“To what end?” Dinah questioned the tension in her almost rippling out.

“Come on, I don’t have to connect all the dots for you do I?”

“He wanted an ace in his back pocket,” Felicity supplied with a sick twist to her stomach. “Get leverage on the senator, then anything he wants he just as to apply the pressure.”

“So if he wanted, let’s say the FBI presence in Star City gone?”

“He’s moving on his plan tonight.”

“What?” Digg glanced at her. “How can you be so sure.”

“Because she is,” Felicity nodded at Cutter. “That’s why you said this deal came with a time limit. Because if we don’t stop Diaz tonight, he could do something worse than blackmailing a senator.”

“Blackmail is so morally grey,” Cupid mused. “Diaz much prefers blood red.”

“Here,” she shoved the drive into her hand. “Take it and get the hell out of here.”

Carrie palmed the device and put her hands in her pockets. “If things were different--”

“Don’t lie and say you’d help us take him down.”

“Fine, I won’t,” she shrugged. “But you’ve given me a gift with this, and for that I’ll make sure I steer clear of Star City from here on out. I wouldn’t want your wrath on my tail.”

“Smartest thing you’ve ever said.”

Cutter walked off with a wink. 

“We really letting her go, Boss?” Rene’s voice echoed in here ear. 

Felicity nodded, drawing in Digg and Dinah’s gazes. “We got what we need. We know what Diaz wants.”

“But she didn’t give us details,” Digg said. “We don’t have a location who knows if it's actually tonight.”

“But we could know when and where,” she had been holding the option in her back pocket the whole time. She didn’t want to have to rely on it, but she knew at some point she might need it.

She pulled out her phone and dialed the number. The only one that would connect to the ship.

“Felicity?” Sara sounded groggy and concerned when she picked up.

“I need a favor, and you need to trust me to handle it.”

There was a long pause, a deep sigh, and then she spoke again. “It’s for Ollie.” 

“Yes,” even though it hadn’t been a question.

“Anything you need, you got it.”

\---

“I just don’t see why I couldn’t come along,” Curtis was bordering on whining in her ear. 

She had resisted the urge to snap. Again. “Because, once I finish hacking into their security system, which we will upgrade free of charge after this, I need someone to have eyes on everyone without being in the house. I can track moments on my tablet but I can’t be calling out duck every ten seconds.”

“Yeah okay,” he said, and she could hear the telltale sounds of a keyboard. “BTW, Cisco wanted me to tell you he could have finished that search if they hadn’t had a mass metahuman break yesterday.”

She rolled her eyes and Digg was the next to speak. “Tell him it’s okay. Not everyone can be Felicity level of good.”

“Let’s see how good I am at the end of the night.” All the fears in her seemed to still. They were there, still stuck in her heart and her head, but the surging, pulse need to feel them had stop dead. She hoped that was a good thing.

“Felicity’s it’s a good plan,” he said, giving her arm a squeeze, then to his comm unit. “Arsenal, Wild Dog, how’s the back look?”

“Diaz is in there,” Roy replied, venom in his voice. “We got eyes on him.”

“Hold your position,” Felicity insisted. They couldn’t be reckless, not with so many lives at stake. “Wild Dog take the east side. There’s a window in the parlor that looks out on that side. Keep the guards in your line of fire at all times.”

“But hold the shot until you say so, I got it,” he groaned, but she could already hear him moving positions. 

“Why am I being stuck staring at this asshole?” Roy questioned. But Felicity refused to answer.

She knew both of them well, but that meant she knew their strengths and weaknesses. Rene had seen Diaz with his hands on Zoe, he had covered his little girl as gunman shot up his apartment, and his fire burned too hot for her to control over comms. Rene would shoot Diaz dead if he had the chance. And as much as it sickened her to think it, they needed him alive. Roy hated Diaz for the havok he caused to the team, and for giving him a beating. But he would stay where she needed him.

“Just do your job,” Digg said, then nodded to her. “We about ready?”

“You know I’m not,” she replied, as he fixed the last strap into place for his gun. 

“It’s a 30 foot drop, I think we’ll be fine.”

“Easy for you to say, you don’t have a fear of falling to your death from high places.”

She really shouldn’t be complaining so much. How else were they gonna get on the roof? 

“If Ponytail hurls in here, you two are comin’ back for the clean up,” Mick Rory grunted from the controls as the ship hovered just above the senators house.

It had been one of Sara’s stipulations from breaking the rules and glancing at the timeline a little. She insisted someone drop them off. She sent Mick with the jump ship.

Most of them balked when Mick showed up in place of Sara, but Felicity understood. Diaz killed Quentin. No matter the kinds of changes Sara had made in her life, she would have ended him on the spot if she had come along. So she sent someone else instead. 

“Thanks a lot,” she groaned. 

“Just like old times, Felicity,” Digg said, a smirk to his voice. “We don’t have time for anything else.”

“Let’s jump.”

And with that they were out of the ship and falling. Felicity’s stomach jumped into her throat and she hand to force out a breath to keep from losing her control. But before she could even think of the fall, or worse debate on opening her eyes, she could hear Digg’s boots thud low against the roof. 

“See, not so bad.”

She turned to glare at him, as she touched her comm. “Black Canary, how’s the front looking?”

“A little overcrowded for my liking,” she replied.

“Then sing, sister.”

“Thought you’d never ask.” 

There was a pause as Dinah took in a breath. A stillness that settled for a second, before the vibrations rippled through the night air. There had been a good chance no one heard them land on the roof. But the canary cry? They were counting on the volume of that. 

“How’s it going?”

“Please,” Dinah scoffed, the sound of fighting grew in her ear. “I got this handled, Overwatch. Bring him down.”

Digg and Felicity headed towards the edge of the roof, and she could just make out a whip of Dinah’s hair in the moonlight as she took down the security.

“The room’s clear,” Curtis said. “Which means you can drop to the balcony just fine. But there are three of his goons at the end of the hall. So be careful.”

John took to the balcony first, reaching his hand up once he was settled to help her down. They were in it now, no turning back. Not that she wanted to turn back. Everything Diaz had done since he killed Cayden James, since before even raced through her mind. He had hurt her friends, destroyed her family, she hoped one day he would burn in ten versions of hell for that. But first, they had to keep playing the game he started months ago.

John watched her, a sly smile falling into place. “We’ve come a long way since the first time we met.”

“You mean since your totally not shady boss kept asking me too look into completely legitimate puzzles for his super secret vigilante business?”

“Yeah,” he laughed. “I’m glad you’re who he brought into this.”

“Back at you,” she replied, but the footsteps in the hall came closer. “You ready for this?”

“Get behind me,” he said right before the door pushed open.

But what Felicity actually did was duck behind a table so she could finish disabling the security system for Curtis. He should have access to the whole house now.

Digg on the other hand took out the first guard with a single shot. The second guy seemed to be smarter and dived out of the way. Only to catch the second shot in the thigh, taking him down to the ground.

“Diaz moved from his position,” Roy clipped in her ear. 

It meant he knew they were there, which is what they had come for. So she wasn’t worried about that. 

“Mr. Terrific you got a position on him?”

“He moved into the family room. No camera angle in there though.”

“Arsenal, take out the guards at the back of the house,” she ordered then stood back up as Digg removed the weapons from their attackers. “Wait, you said there were three goons? Where’s the third?”

“Heat signature from the end of the hall shows two figures in the back bedroom,” Curtis explained. “Best guess is he’s there… wait a second,” there seemed to be a lot of typing and then then he spoke again. “I found the wifi signal for the nanny cam, which happens to be in that room. He’s in there with a young girl. She looks terrified. Early 20s, dark hair. I don’t know.”

“Probably the nanny,” Rene guessed, with a huff. “Diaz is keeping the kid close to him for sure. Probably not with her parents, but she’s got to be downstairs.”

Felicity hesitated for a moment. She hadn’t considered a nanny. She hadn’t factored anyone into her plan but Senator Andrews, her husband, and their daughter. Another person meant deviated from the plan, but it also meant another victim for Diaz to exploit. “Wild Dog, what’s your side look like?”

“All clear, the goon squad went to go see what all that commotion up front was about.”

“Go help Arsenal with the fire fight out back. Once that’s clear one of you go help Black Canary and the other get to the back staircase as quick as you can,” she said, nodding to Digg. “You need to get in there and save the nanny.”

“What about you?”

“Diaz is downstairs,” she explained as if it was obvious.

“I know that, which is where you’re headed, without backup,” he said in a low tone. “I can’t let you do that.”

“I won’t be alone,” she whispered back. “Either Roy or Rene will meet me when I get down there. We need to save that girl too.”

“Diaz doesn’t care about her.”

“Which means she’s expendable to him,” she countered. “We can’t let anyone else become collateral damage in this. Go save her. And I will get Diaz.”

“Oliver would kill me if I let you go down there alone.”

“He’s not here,” she said with a shake of her head. “And that’s why we’re doing this. We keep fighting, even when the people we love have to bow out. That’s the deal we made right?”

So many teammates had come and gone over the years. Even they had left at one time or another. But not really, not down to the core, where it mattered most. She would always be loyal to Oliver- to the mission, and she knew John would be as well.

He took one of the appropriated weapons and pressed it into her hand. “Just in case.”

“I’ll be fine Digg,” she said, a pain swelling in her chest. 

He shook his head. “Don’t make a promise unless you can keep it.”

“I promise.”

He took a deep breath, moving towards the door first. Felicity kept the gun in her hand. She couldn’t be sure she would make it out of the house without firing it once. Digg checked the hall motioning for her to follow him.

Once she reached the staircase, she knew she they had to split up. 

She could wait for Digg to take out that guard, and save the girl. She didn’t have to go down there alone. But she thought about all the times she had been kidnapped. The Count in particular flashing in her mind. That girl needed Spartan more than she needed John Diggle at her side.

He was waiting for her to descend before he moved further down the hall. And the last look they shared conveyed as much as she could.  _ See you on the outside. _ She wanted to say. But the words didn’t need to be said. They felt them all the same.

She took the steps one at a time, a breath with each movement downward. She didn’t know what waited for her at the bottom. But she knew she would handle it one way or another. 


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys.   
> I'm back sooner than you all expected, I hope. And I have a great chapter for you. Plus some news. As you can tell from the chapter count, we are nearing the end of this fic. We have one more chapter after this, and then the epilogue. So I really hope you love it. I'll stop talking and let you read now.

The weight of the gun in her hand kept her thoughts present and focused. She couldn’t let her mind wander, not when they stood to lose so much. 

As she reached the bottom of the stairs she could hear fighting all around. Towards the kitchen she knew Roy and Rene were still dealing with a large portion of Diaz’s men, and Dinah? She probably had her own army to take down our front. 

She should wait. She told John she would wait. But Diaz was there, probably pointing a gun at someone, and she didn’t want to give him the chance to pull the trigger. She couldn’t let him ruin another family. 

She hit her comm, switching the channel to a private line. “Mr. Terrific? Tell me what’s going on.”

“Fe-- I mean Overwatch, did you just override the comms to a closed channel?”

She took a steadying breath as she moved slowly down the hall. “I need to know how everyone is fairing and I need to know now.”

“Spartan almost got the guard upstairs knocked out, he’s gonna get the girl down the trellis,” he explained carefully. “Wild Dog and Arsenal are a little outnumbered, but they’re holding their own.”

“And Black Canary?”

“She’s having a little too much fun if you ask me, beating up on the seven guys out front.”

“How many goons did Diaz start with when we arrived?”

“Why?”

“Answer the question,” she hissed.

“Twenty,” he replied.

_ Twenty. _ Three upstairs. Seven out front with Dinah. “How many on Wild Dog and Arsenal?”

“Ten.”

Diaz had the family. Alone. 

“Okay,” she said and then switched her comm off completely. She knew Curtis would try and talk her out of her next move. Hell if she had half a second, she’d talk herself out of it. But there wasn’t time. 

She pulled out her tablet to take a quick look at the heat signatures. Two figures sat near the center of the room, while the other two were a little further back. But no one stood near the door. She could make it in, but then what? Shoot Diaz? She didn't think she could. But she could get his gun off the family and focused on her. Just until one of the other’s could join her.

She shoved the device back into her coat and repositioned her weapon. “Come on Felicity, you can do this,” she whispered to herself. “You’re a Queen, you’re a  _ Smoak _ . You can do this.”

She took a deep breath, and for just a fraction of a moment she let both Oliver and William’s faces flood her senses. She was doing this for both of them most of all. It meant she couldn’t fail.

She took a step towards the door, the gun like lead in against her palm, and pushed it open. 

But before she could even survey the room, she felt the barrel press against the back of her skull. 

_ No, no, no. _ Curtis said twenty guards. He was almost annoyingly right when it came to things like that. 

But what about household members? She could now see the senator and her husband, bound and gagged on the sofa. Across from them were their young daughter sitting in an arm chair... and their teenage son in the matching one. The senator had two children. They were so focused on the girl they had let this detail slip through the cracks.

“You know I never pegged you for the stupid kind,” Diaz’s voice slithered against her ear. “Move.”

She walked into the room, half of her screaming to whip around and take a shot. But she knew she wouldn’t be fast enough. 

“Jeremy,” Diaz called out, and the boy flinched from his seat. “Come take the gun from Ms. Smoak.”

He stood up, and came over to her, tears glistening in his eyes. He reminded her too much of William. 

_ I’m sorry. _ He mouthed as he took the weapon from her hand. 

She met his eyes just long enough for him to see that she didn’t blame him. She wouldn’t let a soul hold the blame for what Diaz had chosen, not one. 

“Put it on the side table kid, then sit back down.” 

Jeremy did as he was told, keeping his eyes down the whole time. 

Felicity had to think fast. She had turned her comm off so Curtis couldn’t talk her out of this, but there was no way to enable it without Diaz noticing. 

“Did you think you’d actually beat me?” he asked, giving her shoulder blade a shove until she stumbled into the open space between the family. “Because we both know how well that went the last time.” 

She turned to face him. Because if he wanted to shoot her, she wouldn’t let it be in the back. No he was gonna see that she wasn’t afraid of him. “Let them go.”

“You’re not exactly in the best position to be making demands. I’m the one with the gun.”

“You want her to get the FBI agents out of Star City? She can’t do that if she’s dead,” Felicity held herself as firm as she could. But she couldn’t help the rage that was cracking through the surface. “And more importantly she won’t do it if you kill her family. So let them go.”

“No. Maybe instead I’ll keep ‘em here, and you can watch as I kill them. And then I can finally give your husband his payback and kill you too.”

“You kill us, you’ll never make it out of this house alive,” she rebuffed with a head shake. “You know that.”

“Come on Felicity, I’m untouchable,” he sneered, as he walked closer to her, walking a circle around her. “You and your friends, you’ve been trying for months, and you can’t catch me. And I think it’s time I end team Arrow. It’s become a bit of a nuisance.”

She couldn’t help but glance towards the door, trying to hear if the fighting had subsided. Clearly Curtis knew what she was doing now. He had to have told the others. Which one of them would get there first? And would they be too late when they did?

“Maybe I’ll leave one of them alive,” he whispered as he drew closer. “Which one do you think could break the news to Oliver? Which one would twist that knife the most, huh?”

“If you think I’m going to beg you to spare me, you’re wasting your breath,” she glared as he turned to look at her again. “I’ve faced evils and dangers that you wouldn’t even begin to comprehend. I am  _ not _ afraid of you. You can’t manipulate me into doing whatever you want like you did with Black Siren. Because I know that the people  _ I  _ love will never stop until you’re finished. We’ll never stop fighting for our city. And that’s why you’re going to lose. Because you don’t care about Star City. You see it as something you deserve. But it’s not,” she shrugged. “It’s a place you earn, and you’ll never be worthy of it.”

“I wish I could savor this longer, but I think I’m done talking.”

He raised the gun to her eyes, but Felicity didn’t close them. Instead she thought of her mother, when she whispered prayers against her head those long nights after her father had left. She had whispered the same ones to William those first couple weeks after Oliver went to prison. She didn’t want this to be the end, but if it was? She could take comfort in the fact that William would have her mom, and hopefully Oliver back. He’d be okay.

She heard it before she saw anything. And it sounded sweeter than any prayer she could ever recall. Diaz cocked his head towards the wall, just as Dinah’s canary cry broke though the door. Felicity dove at the children, pulling them to the floor as Dinah sent Diaz flying against the stone fireplace. Her arm spiked in pain as she landed on the cool wooden floor. 

Diaz must have hit it at just the right angle, cracking his head against the edge, because he slumped to the ground, and didn’t move. 

“You are so lucky, I’m faster than the guys,” Dinah said as she rolled her eyes.

“Grab his gun and check his pulse,” she said before Dinah could rush to her. “I’ve seen too many horror movies to trust that he’s not gonna get up.”

Dinah shook her head as she grabbed the gun Diaz had dropped, she bent down close enough to reach out for his wrist. “He’s breathing, unfortunately.”

Felicity had checked the kids over, they were both mostly okay. Jeremy had a few bruises to his arm and a black eye forming, but other than that they were fine. 

“Watch your sister, I’m gonna untie your parents, okay?” she waited for him to nod before she stood. 

The senator and her husband looked petrified, straying at the binding around both of them. 

“It’s okay,” Felicity said taking the tape off her mouth. 

“Sofia,” the senator managed to get out as she shook. “Our nanny, she’s--”

“She’s alright,” Felicity, went to work on the ropes. “A friend of ours got her out.” Because she knew John well enough to know he had. “She’s gonna be fine, so are you and your husband.”

Dinah had taken out a pair of cuffs, something Felicity figured she wasn’t technically supposed to have taken from the station, and secured Diaz to the iron of the fireplace gate. Thank god for good architecture. 

“Where’s everyone else?” she asked Dinah as she moved to help Mr. Andrews.

“Tying up Diaz’s loose ends, literally.” she smirked. “Spartan called in an ARGUS transport vehicle, should be here in a few…” she trailed off as her eyes landed on Felicity, zeroing in on her arm. 

She felt the ache again and looked down, blood trickled down and she had to force herself to look away. In the confusion and mess from the canary cry, Diaz must have gotten a shot off. “It’s a graze, I’m fine.”

“Who are you people?” Senator Andrews balked as her ties finally fell away and she ran to pull her children to her, checking them over herself. Felicity finished getting her husband untied and he rushed to join his family.

“We’re the good guys,” Dinah replied. “And  _ she _ just saved your family’s life.”

The senator, looked at Felicity then, realization spreading in her features as she did. She knew exactly who they were now. She nodded and smiled. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Felicity returned the smile as best she could. But she didn’t think she did it justice. Her arm really hurt.

“Come on,” Dinah said, helping her up. “We should go before…” Sirens sounded in the distance, but both of them knew where they were headed. “Before  _ that _ happens.”

“Wait,” senator Andrews stood, looking between them both. “You can’t just leave, what do I tell the police?”

“Tell them someone saved your life,” Felicity replied cradling her arm to her chest. “And tell them exactly what Ricardo Diaz wanted from you. Make sure he never sees the outside of a prison ever again.”

She wanted to ask for more, she could feel the plea pressing against every cell in her body. But the woman had just watched as Diaz trained a gun on her children. She had been terrorized in her home. What right did Felicity have to ask her for a favor?

Dinah grabbed her other arm, tugging her towards the door. “We have to go.”

And she followed. Because there was nothing left for them to do there. She had promised herself she’d save the family, save that little girl. But she couldn’t help the piece of her heart that threatened to break off. 

She had made a promise to save Oliver too. But that’s the thing about their life. Sometimes, even when everything goes just how it should have, they still lost. 


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... I couldn't wait to post this... enjoy the last chapter. I mean before the epilogue that is. Hehe.

Her arm was throbbing once they made it to the hospital. And Rene had eyed her the whole way.  _ Probably on Digg’s orders. _

John got upset when he saw her arm. He insisted she see a real doctor, and she only wanted to be stitched up on the back on the van on the way to the hospital. They compromised with an ARGUS safehouse on the way. But it meant the whole team would be keeping close watch on her for a while. 

Rene agreed to drive her so he could pick up Zoe, and really she was grateful for this particular company. They didn’t have to talk. John would have made her, Dinah would have tried, Roy would have given her a sympathetic look, and, well Curtis probably would have said too much. But Rene remained silent as they drove through the streets of Star City. He parked without a work, and walked next to her in quiet comradery. 

“Felicity?” William’s voice cut through the fog in her mind as she made her way into the waiting room. She saw how much pain he was in, and she hated herself for leaving. How could she do that to him? But then his arms wrapped around her and she banished the negativity away. 

“It’s okay,” she whispered, holding him as tight as she could, she didn’t care it she popped a stitch. “We’re gonna be okay.”

Rene gave her a tight smile, then wandered over to Raisa and Zoe, giving Will and her a moment alone.

“Was it,” then his voice dropped as he met her eyes. “Diaz?”

She nodded slowly, looking over his shoulder to the small group. Raisa greeted Rene, and shifted a sleeping Zoe on to his shoulder once he sat down. 

“I thought so,” he said with a relieved sigh. “The news has been going crazy all night. They say he’s in police custody. But a few government agencies are keeping an eye on him too.”

ARGUS for one, the FBI probably, maybe a few others if any were local.  _ Good. _ she thought. He needed to be watched every second.

“Does this mean Dad can come home?” he asked, his eyes already heavy with emotions. 

“I’m not sure it works like that bud,” even though a few hours ago she had been so sure that it would. Why couldn’t a win ever feel like a win? “But Diaz is going away, he’s never gonna be able to come after us, or the city, ever again.”

He nodded, but she could tell he wished for more. 

“How’s your dad?”

“I don’t know,” Will swallowed hard. “Everytime I ask they say they can’t tell us anything. I even called aunt Thea to see if she could talk her way into something, but that kind of just ended in a lot of yelling through the phone. I think the nurses are too weary to come over here again without news. Aunt Thea said she’s on her way home though.”

“Okay,” she pursed her lips, hating that the nerves had found their way to slip through her cracks again. She had hoped Oliver would be awake when she got back. That she’d be able to spend time with him, to explain to him how they got Diaz. 

She knew if there was one person who could make this victory feel less hallow it would be him. He’d tell her how she did the right thing, even though everything felt like it was seconds from shattering. 

“Ms. Smoak?” Fear spiked in her once more, and for a split second a crushing weight solidified in her stomach.

But when she turned she didn’t see Dr. Schwartz. Instead Senator Andrews stood a few feet away, hovering at the end of the hall.

“May we speak for a moment?”

Felicity squeezed William’s shoulder. “Go sit with the others, I’ll be over there in a second.”

He eyed them both then gave a weak smile as he trudged back towards the chairs.

“I feel horrible for intruding,” she said, fidgeting with her hands. “I saw Lieutenant Drake downstairs, and she said I could find you up here. I’m sorry to hear about your husband.”

“He’s a fighter,” she managed to say. “But thank you, Senator.”

“You saved my family tonight,” she replied in a hushed voice. “You’ve earned the right to call me, Maria.”

“Maria,” Felicity corrected with a tired grin. “May I ask why you’re here?”

“There are not enough words in any language to say thank you for what you did for me this evening,” she kept her voice as even as she could, but Felicity could hear the cracks. “You kept me from losing my world. You put yourself in front of a gun, for me and my family. And I--”

“You don’t need to thank me,” she cut in with a wave of her hand. “Really, it isn’t necessary.”

Maria nodded as she looked around the room. “I suppose you wouldn’t want it getting out that you and your friends are still engaging in vigilante activity?”

“It would put a damper on Thanksgiving this year, yeah.”

She smiled. “Do you know Susan Brayden?”

Felicity wasn’t sure if it was the injury or the day that pressed more exhaustion on to her, but she was sure Senator Andrews was asking her weird questions at this point. “The president? Yeah, I’ve heard of her.”

“We were roommates at UNC,” she said in way of explanation, but it hadn’t really explained anything.

“Okay?”

“And in being close, she sometimes lets me in on things she shouldn’t,” she added with a smile. “Like alien’s trying to invade the planet, type of things.”

More understanding started to dawn on Felicity. “So you know a lot about what goes on in this crazy world?”

“Just enough to know that without people like you and your friends, many more would end up on the wrong side of a situation like tonight.”

“Sen-- I mean Maria, we don’t do what we do to get rewarded,” she said feeling the whole of missing Oliver again. “We do it because it’s the right thing to do.”

“Yes, and doing the right thing is what’s important,” she said with a grin. “Which is why I asked Susan if she remembered who had helped defend the Earth that day.”

Maria was trying to tell Felicity something in her half filled in comments. And even though Felicity knew that Oliver had helped their friends get rid of the Dominators, she didn’t know what that had to do with any of this.

“Felicity, come quick!” William’s voice cut across the waiting room to her, and she turned from the senator to see Dr. Schwartz coming standing there. 

“I have to…” she motioned behind her and Maria nodded.

“Go be with your family, I wish you all the best Ms. Smoak.”

“Felicity,” she amended with a soft smile. “I mean since you let me use your first name.”

“Take care Felicity,” she said as she walked off towards the elevators. 

She gave a small wave as the doors closed behind her, and then Felicity shook off the weirdness and headed over to her family. 

“How is he?” she asked Dr. Schwartz, as William slipped into place next to her. 

She could see Rene’s hand over Zoe’s, and Raisa’s outstretched one on Will’s back.

“He made it through the surgery without any further complications,” she replied with a look of hope. “We were able to remove the fragment, and repair the damage to the liver. It’s my professional recommendation that he remain here for the next couple weeks before…” she paused, and Felicity could see the flash of truth, like she just remembered it. “Before he needs to be transported back.”

“Thank you, Dr. Schwartz,” she reached over and squeezed the doctor’s hand. “For everything.”

“He’s getting settled in his room,” she said with a smile. “I can take you guys back there now if you want.”

“We’ll wait here for everyone,” Rene said, giving her a knowing look. 

“Room 243. And if any nurses try and tell you only two at a time, you let them know I said you could visit longer.” Dr. Schwartz told him, then nodded for her and Will to follow. 

Some part of her brain registered that there were no FBI agents outside Oliver’s door this time, and she wondered if Watson had pulled them in to deal with Diaz instead. Oliver had been in surgery, maybe even she didn’t think he would try to escape after that.

There was still a nurse in his room when they got there, hooking up a monitor, and IV fluids. But as the door swung open, Oliver’s eyes trailed over to them with a slow smile. 

“Hey you,” he said and she felt herself begin to crumble once again. 

Will took up residence at his left side, eyes flitting over Oliver in careful consideration. He was making sure Oliver would be okay. And as much attention as Oliver was giving their son, he has an equal amount trained on her.

“What happened to your arm?” he asked when the room cleared of hospital personal.

She squinted in confusion, then down to her arm. She had sleeves, and as far as she could tell she wasn’t bleeding through the bandage. How could he tell?

“You’re holding it closer to your body,” he whispered reaching his hand out for her to come closer. “I can tell by the way you move that something happened.”

Will looked over at her too, fear crossing his face just a fraction. He hadn’t noticed, and she could tell that bugged him.

“It’s a graze,” she replied, finally coming to settled against the few inches of bed free on Oliver’s other side. “It’s nothing.”

“You getting shot at isn’t nothing to me.” His eyes stared at her with intensity. “I  _ hate _ it.”

“Well I’m not too crazy about you getting stabbed,” she countered trying to force a grin. “But here we are.”

“Felicity…”

“Dr. Schwartz said you’ll need to stay here for a few weeks, while you heal,” she avoided saying what would happen after that. She didn’t want to think about it. “We’ll be here the whole time.”

“You need to sleep.”

“I’ve never felt more awake,” she replied, taking his hand in hers. 

God she wanted to freeze things, to stay in this moment forever. She didn’t want Oliver to go back, she couldn’t bare losing him again. And she was sure Will couldn’t either.

“I wanted to say--”

But before he could finish, the door opened, and not just Rene, but the whole team stood bursting behind it.

“Hey guys,” Felicity looked at them in confusion. “What’s up?”

“You need to see this,” Roy said as he pushed past John and went to the television.

Everyone else filed in with a kinetic energy that she couldn’t place. She turned to the tv once Roy had it stopped on one of the local stations.

“In a turn of events unprecedented in federal cases,” the news anchor said, addressing the camera. “the FBI has decided to overturned their conviction of former mayor Oliver Queen. Queen confessed last May to crimes stemming from his work as Star City’s vigilante the Green Arrow.”

Sound seemed to bleed out from the room. She couldn’t hear the words on the tv or the sounds of the machines next to Oliver. 

How could that have been possible?

_ We were roommates at UNC. _ Maria Andrews words echoed in her mind. And the looks she had given her? The senator had called in the highest favor she could think of for this. She had done exactly what Felicity had hoped, and she didn’t even know where to begin to process things.

Oliver pressed his thumb against her palm, bringing her back. He looked just as shocked as she felt.

“How in the world?”

“I don’t know,” she breathed, taking in every ounce of him. She’d tell him everything, every detail she knew and the ones she could only guess. But not just yet. Not in that moment. Because all she wanted to do was feel his lips against her own.

She moved for him, feeling his arms wrap around her middle and tugging her to him as they kissed. Things were as perfect as they could be.  _ Almost. _

She broke their kiss, and Oliver watched her closely, his eyes reacquainting themselves with all of her. She smiled, pulling the chain from her neck. 

“There’s something we need to do,” she said in a low voice. 

“I’d put that ring on your finger a million times if I had to.”

“Once more will do, Casanova,” she teased.

“Wait,” Will said and they both stalled as he pulled out his phone, bringing the camera up to both of them. “Aunt Thea will be pissed if she misses something mushy.”

“Kid’s got a point,” Digg said as he clapped his hands on Will’s shoulders.

“She’ll get over it,” Felicity turned back to Oliver, taking his ring between her fingertips. “You’re never allowed to take this off again.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he grinned like crazy, and she wasn’t sure if it was bliss or the drugs he was on. But he let her slip it into place before picking up hers. “I’m gonna love you forever, Felicity Smoak. That’s not a promise, it’s a proven fact.”

She felt the band slide onto her finger and their hands laced together. She didn’t need to freeze this moment anymore. She knew without a shadow of a doubt they would have so many more to come. And they would face them the way they were meant to. As one.


	10. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to say thank you to each and everyone of you for reading this story. It started out as a standalone oneshot to a prompt on Tumblr, but now look at it. It's coming to an conclusion. I never could have made it this far with this story without everyone who encouraged me and left reviews and kudos. Seriously thank you from the bottom of my heart. And I hope you enjoy this as much as I did.
> 
> with love,  
> Kayla

_ Two Months Later _

She walked along the quaint street, seeing the decorations of the holiday season still hanging from the roof trim. Everything seemed so normal. It was kinda hard for Felicity to process that this was where she she would find who she was looking for.

Her phone buzzed, and she couldn’t stop the warmth that spread when she looked down at the called id.

“Hello,” she greeted pressing it to her ear. “How’s the baking going?”

“It’s great,” Oliver replied, and he sounded like he had his measuring face on. “It would be better if Thea and Roy weren’t trying to eat one of every batch.”

“Hey we are only eating the rejects,” Thea called through the phone, and she could hear Thea's laughter as Oliver most removed her from the kitchen.

“I thought they were taking Will to the game?”

“It got rained out,” he said. “You missing the Star City rain yet?”

“In the sunny, 70 degree warmth of Coast City? Nah.” she laughed.

“At least you have quiet. I have a madhouse with William, Zoe, and JJ. Plus Roy and Thea eating things for the PTA bake sale, tomorrow.”

“And you’re loving every second of it, don’t lie."

“Never to you,” he said in a hushed tone. “I miss you, though.”

“I miss you too,” she groaned. She hated being away from him even for a few days.

“How’d the meetings go?”

She could hear the double meaning to his words. And she was grateful he was the one with a houseful of people and not her. “You were right. Walter’s investment friends are really interested in Smoa Tech. I think it’s a good sign.”

“And the other one?”

“I’m about to go to that  _ meeting _ right now,” she replied looking up at the house. “I’ll call you when I head home.”

“Be careful, and I love you.”

“I will,” she said blowing a kiss at the phone. “Love you too.”

They hung up and she placed the phone back in her pocket.

It had taken her two months to get here. Not that she hadn’t found the information out ten hours after she actually started digging. But she still had to work up to this point. And she wasn’t even sure why she thought coming was a good idea. It was a terrible one. She should leave. She should go home and forget this whole thing.

She turned back cursing under her breath. Except she couldn’t exactly do that. She had to see this one last thing through to the end. And that meant going up and knocking on that door.

She finished psyching herself up and took a step forward. But before she could make it to the front walk, a bike came skidding to a stop beside her.

The girl riding it was small, probably, no older than eight or nine. Her blonde hair in pigtails as a big grin spread across her face. 

“Hi,” she greeted, watching Felicity closely. When she was satisfied with her inspection she asked. “Are you a friend of my Aunt Carrie?”

_ Aunt huh? _ Felicity pushed out a breath. Kids could sense lies right? She smiled as she crouched down a little. "I am. Is she home by any chance?"

The girl nodded and opened her mouth to speak, when the front door opened. 

Even with the red coloring fading from her hair, Felicity would recognize Carrie Cutter anywhere.

“Lucy,” she called out, her eyes darting between the girl and Felicity. “Come inside and wash up.”

Lucy dropped her bike and ran to the house. She paused only long enough for Carrie to look her over and then kiss her cheek. 

When Lucy was inside that's when Cutter started to move.

“What are you doing here?” she asked her voice lowering the close she got to Felicity. “Our deal is done. I kept up my end of the bargain.”

“After our deal I went back over the files Waller left behind,” Felicity replied, ignoring the question. “I was really interested in the file you wanted above all else.”

“This isn’t any of your business.”

“That friend,” she continued. “The one who’s throat got slit by Ricardo Diaz. You made it sound like she died.”

“I never said that,” Carrie folded her arms, a spike of Cupid flooding her features. “I just wasn’t willing to correct you.”

“Your friend was on the Suicide Squad wasn’t she? Not in full capacity, not on any missions, but she was one of Waller’s recruits.”

“You already seem to know the answer to that.”

“Why didn’t you just tell me you were doing it to save her daughter from bouncing around foster care?” Felicity shrugged. “You didn’t think I’d be willing to help you with that?”

“Why would one of the good guys help me? We’re not on the same side Felicity,” Carrie paused her gaze flicking back to the house. “You’re the hero and I’m the villain. That’s the way our stories are destined to be told.”

“Then why help your friend? Why take in her daughter?”

She took a moment to consider her words, and Felicity almost lost faith that she’d answer. “I didn’t lie about what Ricardo did to her. She survived. She’s a fighter. A little on the intense side sometimes, but strong. After he did that, she told me about her ex. He was a bit like Diaz. Power hungry and ten kinds of abusive. Then she let it slip they had a kid together. She never wanted Lucy to grow up in a situation where a guy like that could ever hurt her.”

“Did she ask you to find Lucy?”

“She had no clue where Luce went,” Carrie said, and the anger weaved into her voice. “Waller made sure of that when she locked her in a cell. Plus she was in no condition to take on motherhood again. She said Lucy was better off without her. But I wasn’t willing to chance it, even if Harley didn’t want to know.”

Felicity felt the slow nod. “So you used me to break into Waller’s files for you.”

“Like you didn’t have fun with that?” Carried grinned. “Like taking down Diaz wasn’t the best high of your life?”

“Never said that,” she said, then she took a step back. “Okay.”

“Leaving so soon?” Felicity could see the anxiety across Carrie’s face, even if she tried to hide it. “You just got here.”

“I came for answers,” she looked around the yard, saw Lucy playing at the window. “And now that I have them, I should go.”

“And what I’m supposed to believe you’re gonna leave us be?”

“Take care of that child Carrie,” Felicity said as she cleared her throat. “We may be on opposite sides, but we both have a stake in the same role. And protecting a child you care about, is more important than anything else in this world.”

They didn’t say goodbye to each other. Felicity was sure by the next week, Carrie and Lucy would have a new life, in a new city. But regardless of where they settled next, Felicity truly believed Cutter would do what was best for the girl. And that would give her enough peace as she headed back to Star City, and to her own family. 


End file.
